Syria hits back at global outcry over crackdown

JISR AL-SHUGHUR, Syria (AFP) – Syria has launched a media offensive to counter the outcry over its deadly crackdown on dissent, escorting journalists to a hub of the protests and staging a loyalist rally. Near the flashpoint northern town of Jisr al-Shughur, officials Wednesday showed a group of 20 journalists, including an AFP correspondent, a grave containing at least five corpses they said were security forces. The remains, which lay under a pile of rubbish, had been placed in yellow and orange body bags. Bulldozers surrounded what state television identified as "a new mass grave," unearthed after the army took control of the town on Sunday. The official SANA news agency…